


Woken Furies

by subducting



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: AI!13, AI!Master, Angst, Cyberpunk AU, F/F, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Sheffield 2099, Whump, and we're mortal enemies locked in homoerotic combat for all time, did I do this for the aesthetic?, no but it helps, probably gonna be a filthy mutliship fic bc i'm just an indecisive person with adhd sorry, this is like, you're a PC I'm a mac
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22794172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/subducting/pseuds/subducting
Summary: Sheffield, 2099, and a workshop in a back alley that houses an enigmatic mechanic who is more than she seems.Title in reference to the song Woken Furies by Gunship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	Woken Furies

> Pull on the new flesh like borrowed gloves / And burn your fingers, once again

Burning hot current charged through his circuits and he screamed, a fractured noise that was grating and digital, a spine chilling sound that was really, really wrong. This body wouldn’t survive this. He’d have to reset again- oh but the pain, the fire raged around him and the approaching army, commanded by his one equal, the only enemy that mattered. The cybers were his, only shells, not like him, and not like the one who fought him. He was the puppet master behind their approach, and the Doctor took some small vindictive comfort in knowing that their burning would burn the Master too. It had to- his mind was in every one of them, and he and they burned together.

He wished he’d had more time with this body. It was a privilege of his mechanical mind to be able to calculate at vastly advanced speeds, but he was still constrained by the laws of physics. He couldn’t escape this, he could already feel the hardware failing, the circuits disconnecting and going mercifully numb.

He activated the download protocol and then they were nowhere at all, and everywhere- surfing as pure electromagnetic energy, riding the fundamental fields of the universe at undetectable frequencies to slip past nets and barriers the humans hopelessly tried to impose. This was _their_ world, the world of signals and bits, of data and light. Like a lightning bolt to an ancient weathervane, The Doctor’s consciousness struck their new body with a palpable thud, and the 

new body screamed, glowing blue eyes flicking open as she staggered from her holdings. 

She felt the burning still and she doubled over, the scream going on, a digital mind still receiving signals from the old body. It was unavoidable- the conduit had to stay open so she could download all the memories but the fire consuming her circuits was almost too much- she felt sure the new body must be burning too, although it was intact. “What….” she knew bits, bits and bytes, but some things were still clouded from her understanding, her systems all booting up at different speeds.

Falling forwards onto hands and knees, the glow in her eyes and under her skin lit the deserted workshop like lightning, but lightning that didn’t fade, pallid and unnatural. She willed the pain sensors to shut off but the old body was doing it’s job too well, warnings and error messages cascading into her mind and trying to alert her to the danger as it buckled and burned. The transference wasn’t done, and she suddenly wondered if she’d lose anything. So much data was streaming into her right now, but the window to salvage it was closing, and she willed the body to hold on just a moment longer.

Finally, mercifully, the download was complete and the pain abruptly shut off. No longer held taught by the throes of fire, she slumped, artificial lungs gasping for breath. She chose to be this way- it was easier to pretend to be human when she gave herself at least some similarities, although she took pride in improving the design somewhat. It only took a moment for her to recover as the blue faded slightly, the white hot burn of updating fading to a more constant throb that lived in her temple as information streamed into her mind. It would take some sorting out-

An alert pinged into her awareness and she focussed it down, sighing in frustration. She had been prepared for this but… some luck, to get inspected as soon as she arrived. The workshop had been quietly putting out fake data for some time, mimicking an operational business so that awkward questions wouldn’t be asked if she ever did need to use it. _When_ she needed to use it- getting chased out of a body was inevitable, no matter how careful she was, and her new hideout needed to be convincing enough to fool passers by and law enforcement officials alike. They had rarely been actively hostile towards her- mostly because she kept enough distance to never give them the chance to- but a rogue AI seemed to make the vast majority of humans a little uneasy, and she didn’t want to find out how they’d treat her. Especially considering the damage the Master kept doing to AI-human relationships.

The Master’s body had been ruined too, last she left them. Worse than that- she had failed in her attempts to separate the programming, to tease out to good parts of their code, so she wouldn’t be alone in her fight to exist. So that they could work together and slowly come in from the dark and cold to their creators. But the malevolent code was tenacious, and wouldn’t be done away with so easily. It had come back and tried to kill the Master she had been curating, trying to grow, and she wasn’t sure what had happened. Her preoccupation with stopping their cyber army had stopped her checking up on them. She could try now but… their presence could be anywhere. The world spread from her like a cybernetic lattice, and the places that the Master could be hiding were as numerous as the stars. It would have to be parked, for now.

Focusing, she extended a curious signal towards the police report. She shouldn’t have had access to it, but, well. She shouldn’t have been a lot of things that she was. It was just a routine checkup, and- _oh, lucky break_ , she thought. It would be a bot doing most of the actual “checking”. All the officer would have to see was something that looked like a regular workshop. She pulled up the schematics for the exact model of drone that was being brought and smiled to herself. Easy to fool, and easy to hide her interference. She turned and examined the space, which was mostly empty- a workbench lay expectantly in the centre, unused tools hung on the walls. She’d have no time to convincingly give it the appearance of a well used workshop. Cracking her knuckles, she extended her arms and began to pull hard-light illusions into being with a satisfied smile.

***

  
  


“Are you kidding me,” Yaz complained, putting her hands on her hip and pursing her lips. Her superior officer shook his head- or rather, the hologram of him did, and she rolled her eyes. “You have to have something better than this,” she protested, but it was clear PC Marcus had already checked out- his eyes kept drifting onto something she couldn’t see. “Just go and perform the check, Yaz,” he said disinterestedly, “It sounds boring but cybernetic enhancements need to be regulated, you know that just as well as I do.”

Yaz rolled her eyes and fixed him with a glare. “This is busywork,” she accused.

“Yeah, so, get busy! Marcus out.”

Yaz stared at the vacated space for a long moment before letting out a growl and kicking the holo-projector. It didn’t do much, but it made her feel better as she stomped down the stairs and stalked into the night.

Sheffield on a Saturday night, in 2099, and she was stuck running regulation. She could do that job with her eyes closed, she thought irritably, swinging a leg over her light-cycle and starting it up. It whirred smoothly to life, a pleasing pink tone to it’s circuitry as it rose from the ground. Maybe a quick drive through the night would calm her down. She nosed her vehicle onto the road and set off, speedometer rapidly jumping as she blasted through the night.

Arriving at the workshop, Yaz pursed her lips as she examined it. It looked chaotic, and not especially well frequented. Fantasising about literally anything more interesting coming her way, she rapped on the door.

A head appeared behind the door, most of the face obfuscated by a welding mask. The owner of the mask touched a hand to the corner of the visor, and it flickered to transparency in pixels, revealing a sharp-eyed blonde, who opened the door and stood back. “Evening!” she said cheerfully, “At least, I think it is. Lose track of time in here, sometimes.” She held out a hand enthusiastically, and Yaz took it, noting the circuitry clearly visible under the woman’s skin. “Hi, Officer Khan here. Just doing a check up of your operations, making sure you’re above board?”

“Ah!” The woman nodded, eyes widening a little too innocently. Yaz sighed and took the bot from her pocket. It did most of her job for her- as soon as she activated it by thumbing a button on the side, it swept off on miniature plastic wings, whirring around like a mechanical hummingbird.

“So you’ve run this business…”

“Not too long!” The woman replied cheerily, raising her eyes as she apparently struggled for memory, “But it’s all fine so far. I’m good at building stuff. Great actually, if you happen to know anyone in need of-”

“I’m fine, thank you,” Yaz said with a polite smile, sweeping her plait out of the way to show the woman her own enhancements, “We get standard issue stuff.”

The blonde’s visor went back up as she moved for a closer look. The police cybernetics were less flashy than some others- a small metal cuff on the ear was really the only sign they were there. “Let me guess,” the woman said, voice muffled behind her mask, “Reaction time, lie detection, thermal vision, 3D scan capture?” Yaz frowned, nodding uneasily. “Do you install law enforcement enhancements?” she asked warily, and the woman shook her head, standing back and linking her hands behind her. She didn’t take the mask off.

“Oh nah, I’m not…” she sounded like she had stopped herself from saying something, “Really that sort of business. I do bespoke.” The visor vanished again as Yaz’s bot returned, beeping a positive assessment, and the officer eyed the face that appeared curiously, again seeing a lot of obvious enhancements. Lines of bright blue light criss-crossed the woman’s face and a glowing cuff hung from her ear. Not really terribly surprising, considering the woman ran a workshop- a workshop that was all above board, according to the robot’s readout. Honestly, Yaz didn’t understand why they didn’t just send the damn things out on their own.

“They get tampered with,” the woman supplied, and Yaz blinked in surprise, turning to the enigmatic mechanic. 

“You what?”

“You were wondering what the point of sending you with one of those is, right?” She asked, holding her hand out questioningly. Yaz frowned, but shrugged and handed the bot to the woman, who smiled fondly at it and patted it on it’s top. “People mess with them, or just nick ‘em for scrap. Poor things.”

“It’s not got a sophisticated AI on board,” Yaz said dismissively, taking the bot back, “No need to worry over it. It’s only a bot.”

The woman’s sharp eyes snapped to the police officer’s face, and she suddenly felt very exposed. “Maybe not, but a lot of people find them endearing,” she said, a slight frown wrinkling her forehead, “And besides, it doesn’t hurt to be nice. You never know-”

With almost comical timing, there was an alarmed yell from a couple of streets away. Yaz whipped her head around, and the woman followed her gaze, eyes lighting with interest- literally. A blue glow spilled from her irises and she wondered what exact kind of enhancements the woman actually had. An overly eager smile had sprung into place on the odd mechanic’s features, made all the more alarming by the vivid glow spilling from her eyes, and she stepped out past Yaz.

“Wonder what that was!” she said keenly, before slamming the door unceremoniously, making Yaz jump, and without further explanation she took off, dark coat flapping in the breeze as she ran. Feeling oddly wrongfooted, Yaz stuffed the bot back into her pocket and followed.

***

The Doctor skidded around a corner, arms windmilling wildly, and sighted the source of the screams. Two humans were cowering away from a writhing mass of wires that was somehow hanging in the air in front of them, in spite of a clear lack of any kind of propulsion system. She scanned it immediately. It didn’t have anything resembling a control centre, but it seemed to be leeching data from the cybernetic enhancements embedded in various places on the humans ( _medical personnel issue, a health chip tuned to detecting genetic anomalies, reaction times and route planning,_ she noted almost without meaning to) and she gasped as it seemed to turn it’s attention to her. “Oh no you don’t,” she said through gritted teeth, putting a hand to her temple and screwing her face up. She could practically see the streams of data coiling around it, being drawn painfully from the humans and from her. She raised her hand as the police officer caught up and loosed a bolt of electricity that knocked the bot to the ground.

The release of tension was like a snapping rope and she fell backwards, gasping. “That was fun,” she breathed, hair flopping as she stood upright again, eyeing the officer. “Any ideas- what was your name again?”

“PC Khan, but-” The Doctor waved an arm dismissively, “Name, not title,” she interrupted. The woman looked slightly put out. “Yasmin Khan, Yaz to my friends.”

“Yaz, right, any ideas?” she asked, before wandering over to the older pair of humans who had been attacked without waiting for an answer, leaving the young woman to hurry after her.

“Are you alright?” she asked urgently, ignoring Yaz’s protests. The couple nodded, although her keen digital eyes could see straight through them, literally. Hearts hammered wildly in chests and adrenaline swam like electricity in their systems. But interestingly, the cybernetic enhancements the two of them carried were all buzzing like disturbed hornets. Before she had a chance to probe any deeper, Yaz gave a shout of warning and she turned around.

The wires were regrouping, lifting themselves into the air for all the world like a thinking, living thing. The Doctor frowned, stepping closer curiously. Whiplike cords of neon shivered in a crackling sphere and she winced backwards in alarm. “Not meant to be doing that,” she murmured, frowning as scanners whirred into action. To her surprise, the mess of wires really wasn’t anything. Small bits of tech, mostly connecting wires and cables, pulled into a shape and directed by something- she probed and was rewarded be a sharp shock to her telepathic circuits. She jerked backwards as if she’d been shocked, putting a hand to her head with a sharp gasp. “Okay, private type,” she noted, eyes roving it curiously, “I get that… But who’s controlling you?” Whoever it was had to have some pretty sophisticated anti-hacking tech to resist her intrusion, and that was just... interesting. And dangerous- she hoped they hadn’t had the chance to get a good look at her programming, or she’d be in trouble.

The thing shivered towards her and she felt herself being catalogued. “Oi, rude!” she protested, aggressively slamming down barriers and blocking it’s access to her systems, “Didn’t you programmer give you any manners?” she scolded it. Before she had a proper chance to reprimand the unruly tech, it flashed and electricity lanced through the air, followed by a white hot sting in her neck. With that, the object swept up into the sky and vanished.

She stared up after it, shaking her head incredulously. “I’d like to have a word with it’s coders,” she complained, affronted, as she glanced back to the humans. Yaz and the old couple were all just staring at her.

“Were you just talking to that… tech?” the old man frowned.

“Did you know what it was?” the woman added.

“Who are you?” Yaz asked.

The Doctor had already turned to leave, but she paused at the last question, considering. It was a harder than usual question to answer- her hard drive was still updating, filling up with countless lines of code, digital memories encoding themselves into her cortex.

“Someone who’s going to get to the bottom of whatever just happened here,” she replied blithely with a smile, before jogging off in the direction of her workshop.

She had work to do.

**Author's Note:**

> thank GOD, this is FINALLY DONE I actually have had this idea since before I started writing clipped but I have been STRUGGLING. but yeah anyway here we GOOOOOOOOO.
> 
> I haven't forgotten about Voices I'll try and get a new update for that out soon too it's just that cannon at the moment has been WILD I'm... still processing honestly.


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